Are Miracles Real?

The short answer: Yes. If God made the universe, He can act in it, and the Bible records real miracles done by God, above all the resurrection of Jesus. Christians all agree God can still do miracles today, though they differ on how often and in what ways He does.

“Miracles can’t happen. Science has shown that nature follows fixed laws. People in Bible times just didn’t know any better.” You’ll hear that a lot. But it’s not as watertight as it sounds.

People in Bible times knew how the world worked

First, the idea that ancient people would believe anything is a myth. When Joseph found out Mary was pregnant, he didn’t think, “Oh well, these things happen.” He knew perfectly well how babies are made, which is exactly why he planned to call off the wedding. When the women told the disciples Jesus was alive, “their words seemed like nonsense to them, and they did not believe the women” (Luke 24:11). People in Bible times knew that virgins don’t conceive and dead people stay dead. That’s precisely why miracles amazed them.

Can God act in His own world?

Second, the real question isn’t scientific. It’s this: is there a God? If there’s no God, then nature is all there is, and miracles are impossible. But if there is a God who made the universe, then of course He can act in it. A novelist can write a surprise into her own story. A miracle isn’t God breaking His laws so much as God, who made the regular patterns of nature, doing something unusual for a special reason.

Science studies what normally happens. It’s brilliant at that. But by itself, it can’t tell you that something unusual never happens. That’s a belief people bring to science, not a discovery science has made. G. K. Chesterton pointed out that people who believe in miracles usually do so because of evidence, while people who refuse to believe often do so because of a theory that says they can’t happen.

Evidence, not fairy tales

The Bible doesn’t present miracles as vague legends from long ago and far away. Peter, preaching in Jerusalem only weeks after the crucifixion, said Jesus was “certified by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know” (Acts 2:22). He was speaking to people who had been there. If he’d been making it up, they could have shouted him down.

And the greatest miracle of all, the resurrection, was witnessed by many people. Paul says Jesus “appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living” (1 Corinthians 15:6). In other words: go and ask them.

What miracles are for

Miracles in the Bible aren’t magic tricks or entertainment. They’re signs, pointers to who Jesus is. John wrote about Jesus’ miracles, “these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). When Jesus healed the blind and raised the dead, He was showing what God’s kingdom is like: a world where everything broken is put right.

Miracles today

Do miracles still happen? All Christians agree that God can do miracles today and that He answers prayer. Beyond that, faithful Christians differ. Some believe God regularly does dramatic miracles of healing and the like today, just as in the book of Acts. Others believe the most dramatic miracles were mainly given to confirm the message of Jesus and the apostles, and that God now usually works in quieter ways, though He is still free to do anything He chooses. Many Christians sit somewhere in between. This is an area where Christians who love the Bible disagree, so listen carefully to your own church’s teaching and test every claim you hear.

One caution: be wary of anyone who uses miracles to get money or attention, or who tells sick people they weren’t healed because they lacked faith. That’s not how Jesus treated people.

The heart of it is simple. A world with God in it is a world where the resurrection is possible. And if the resurrection happened, everything changes.

Think about it: If you were sure there was a God, would miracles still seem impossible to you? Why or why not?

Go deeper: Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton — Chesterton argues that he believes in miracles on the same kind of evidence that convinces him America was discovered, and that it’s usually the unbeliever, not the believer, who has decided the question in advance. Start with chapter 10, “Authority and the Adventurer”.